[Pushbutton]

I posted this comment in another thread, but felt that it could use some more exposure:

My Magnum EVIC HomeLink (despite the dealer replacing it once) did not have the range of my 300M, nor the hand-held remotes. I solved it by lengthening the garage door operator antenna by a fractional wavelength. That is to say I doubled the length of the OEM opener antenna.

All you need to do is:

1. Get a piece of 18-22 gage (not important) wire exactly as long as the existing antenna (you will have to guess the length in some cases when the wire disappears into the housing).

2. Use a butt connector to join the stripped ends of the existing wire and the new one.

3. Let it hang down from the opener.

Now the Magnum hits the opener from a reasonable range and the others can hit it from about 100m away!

 

[JeffreyDJ]

Yeah, I've noticed my HomeLink was weak. This is good info.

Before I could hit the garage door open down the street. Now, even at the end of my driveway it doesn't work (my driveway is fairly long). I almost have to be right on top of it to open.

Wasn't a big hassle, but it did take getting used to (and I have to remove to close it sooner rather than later now too).

 

[Pushbutton]

I'm glad it will help you. I'm surprised others have not shared our experiences!

 

[Mr. iNCREDIBLE]

mine works fine and I have a 110' driveway and usually push it 3 -4 houses down the street before I get to my driveway, but I will say that I have to hold the button for 2 -3 seconds for it to respond, where my hand held remote is a quick push and release....

 

[JeffreyDJ]

I have many trees, etc. in the way, so perhaps that affects it. But even holding it down doesn't make a difference. I have to be within a few car lengths of the door for it to respond well.

I'm planning to lengthen my antenna this weekend sometime and see if that helps.

 

[Nightshade]

Where is the antenna for this? I imagine it's hidden up in the headliner?

 

[Vindes]

Mine varies quite a bit from door to door. On the door my wife uses my homelink will trigger it from a couple hundred feet. On mine it's very picky. Need to be positioned correctly and no more than about 30 feet. I'll have to give the antenna extension a try.

Oh, and yeah, my homelink is much slower then the original remotes. I figure it has something to do with the revolving code thing, but really not sure what.

 

[FloridaRT]

Nightshade, they are talking about the antenna wire on the garage door opener, not the Homelink.

Bob

 

[Todd RT]

Sure wish I had a garage...

 

[Nightshade]

Nightshade, they are talking about the antenna wire on the garage door opener, not the Homelink.

Bob

*LAUGHS*

:blam:

 

[k9eros]

I've been toying with this idea for the last week, one of my garage doors has no range while the other is OK at best. The garage is metal with metal doors, the door installer said it's due to all the metal killing the range. My Homelinks are much weaker than the OE openers. I went ahead and did this after reading your post, and it sure seems to have made a difference. I just opened the weaker door from 30 feet away with the Homelink in my truck, where I would normally have to almost hit the door to do it.
For you radio gurus out there, if adding this fractional wavelength helps, would adding more help out even more? For instance, if the original antenna is (I'm assuming) a 1/4 wave, and I just made it a 1/2 wave, would making it a 3/4 or full wave give me better performance?

All you need to do is:

1. Get a piece of 18-22 gage (not important) wire exactly as long as the existing antenna (you will have to guess the length in some cases when the wire disappears into the housing).

2. Use a butt connector to join the stripped ends of the existing wire and the new one.

3. Let it hang down from the opener.

Now the Magnum hits the opener from a reasonable range and the others can hit it from about 100m away!

 

[FloridaRT]

My Homelink works better than the original garage door opener remote controler................BTW, my inside box of the garage door opener does have a short wire antenna hanging out of the box, it's about 10" long.

Bob

 

[Pushbutton]

k9eros, I also have a steel garage door...two layers thick for that matter. But I do have a row of windows about chest high acroos the door which probably helps.

Obviously going to a full wave length would maximize your gain. But gain is probably not your issue, its location. You may want to play around with running a length of wire upwards (instead of down) so that it is above the door where the wood (or maybe stucco or brick in Seguin) would be more passive to the radio waves. It may work or not, but wire is cheap.

As far as what a full, half, quarter wavelength is see: http://www.csgnetwork.com/freqwavelengthcalc.html Just plug in the frequency, select the desired wavelength and read the length in inches, etc.

My Chamberalin opener runs at 315 Mhz. YMMV

PB

 

[k9eros]

My openers are Chamberlain also, the real problem is that my garage is a steel building. There is no better spot for the antenna unless I run shielded coax outside then attach an antenna out there.
That being said it is one cool garage, 1200 square feet, lots of parking and work shop room. Don't pay attention to the mess, half of my house is out there since I tore the house down and am building a new house.

k9eros, I also have a steel garage door...two layers thick for that matter. But I do have a row of windows about chest high acroos the door which probably helps.

Obviously going to a full wave length would maximize your gain. But gain is probably not your issue, its location. You may want to play around with running a length of wire upwards (instead of down) so that it is above the door where the wood (or maybe stucco or brick in Seguin) would be more passive to the radio waves. It may work or not, but wire is cheap.

As far as what a full, half, quarter wavelength is see: http://www.csgnetwork.com/freqwavelengthcalc.html Just plug in the frequency, select the desired wavelength and read the length in inches, etc.

My Chamberalin opener runs at 315 Mhz. YMMV

PB

 

[NautcaSprt6]

Ive done this many years ago when I first got my garage door opener installed.
I used speaker wire and its more than double the lenght.
I used a staple gun to put it on the ceiling and i spliced the wire about 6 inches to let the wire exposed.
Well I dont know what the original distance was, but now I can open it while my car is in the street, say about 20-25 feet.

 

[SamySnead]

6-year bump. Was wondering if anyone has tried this recently and what were the results? Im thinking it may be time to extend the antenna wire.

Ive been having issues lately with my Magnum and my '11 Durango where somedays it will open RIGHT in front of the garage and most days it wont open at all.

 

[electjohn]

You could put a piece of metal (any kind) a short distance behind the antenna to act as a reflector. This will increase the range also.